Lyon County times. [volume] (Silver City, Nev.) 1874-1907, 1887-07-30

might speak a little more kindly TO me,
considering-considering all things There,
don't cry, they are all right at Mooifontein,
and dare say that we shall get bacz lhere
somehow sometime or other. | had i,ice
business to get here at ALL l can tell VS.
She suddenly stopped weeping and Smiled,
her tears passing away like a summer storm.
"How did you get through" she asked "Tell
me all about it, Capt. Mel" and accordingly
he did.
She listened in silence while he sketched the
chief events of his journey and when he had
done she spoke in quite changed tone.
at is very good and kind of you to have
risked your life like this for me. Only l
wonder that you did not all of you see that it
would be of no USE We shall both be shut,
up here together now, that is all, and that
viii be very sad for you and Bessie
ooh So you have heard of our engage
ment?" he said.
ayes, 1 got Bessie's letter about couple
of hours ago, and congratulate you both
very much. l think that you will have the
sweetest and loveliest wife in South Africa,
Capt. Mel; and l think that Bessie will have
Il husband any woman might be proud of"
and she half bowed and half courtesied to
him as she said it, with graceful little dir OF
dignity that was very taking.
"Thank you,n he said, simply; "yes, think
am very lucky fellow"
"And now" she said "we had better go
and see about the cart You must be very
tired and hungry" and they started.
A few minutes walk brought them to the
cart, which Mouti had outspanned close to
Mrs, Nevilles wagon, where jess and her
friends we're living, and the first person they
saw was Mrs. Neville herself. She was a
good, motherly, colonial woman, accustomed
to a rough life, and not easily disturbed by
all emergency like the present.
MY goodness, Capt. Niel!' she cried, as
soon as jess had introduced him. "Well, you
are plucky to have forced your way through
all those horid Beers! | am sure | wonder
that they did not shoot you or beat you to
death with sjambocks the bIutes. Not that
there is much use i'll your coming, for you
will never be able TO get jess back till Sir
George Colley relieves us, and that can't be
for two months, they say. Well, there is one
thing, jess win be able rQ.siecp in The cart
now and you can get one - the patrol tents
and sleep alongside. 1t won't be quite pro
per, perhaps, but in these times we can't stop
to consider prOpriety There, there, you go
off to the governor. He VIII be glad enough
to see you, I'll be bound. l saw him at the
other end of the camp, there, five minutes
ago AN We viii have the cart arranged and
see all about it."
Thus adjured, John departed, and when be
returned half an hour afterward, having told
his eventful tale, which did not, however,
convey any information of general value, he
was rejoiced to find the process of "getting
things straight" was in good progress. What
was better still, jess had fried him a beef
steak over the camp fire, and was now EN-
ployed in serving it on a little table by the
wagon He sat down on a camp stool and
ate his meal heartily enough, while jess
waited on him and Mrs. Neville chartered
away.
"By the way" she said, jess tells me you
are going to marry her sister. Well. | wish
you joy. A man wants a wife in a
country like this. 1t isn't like England,
where in five cases out of six he might as well
60 and cut his throat as get married. 1t
saves him money here, and children are a
blessing, as nature meant them to be, and
not burden, as civilization has made them.
Lord, how my tongue does run on! 1t isn't
delicate to talk about children when you have
only been engaged a couple of weeks; but,
you see that's what it all comes to after all
one Il plttLC SH DCSSt, anu d SpOi Ollc,
tool don't know her much--though she
hasn't got the brains of jess, here. That re-
minds me; as you are engaged to Bessie, of
course you can look after jess, and nobody
will think anything of it, Ahl if you only
knew what place this is for talk, though
their talk is pretty well scared out of them
now, I'm thinking. My husband is coming
round presently to the cart to help get Jesss
bed into it. Lucky it's big. We are such a
tight fein that wagon that | shall be down.
right glad to see the last of the dear girl;
though, of course, you'll both come and take
your meals with us"
jess heard all this in silence. She could
not well insist upon stopping in the crowded
wagon; it would be asking too much; and,
besides, she had had one night in the wagon,
and that was quite enough for her Once she
suggested that she would see if she could
not get the nuns to take her in at the convent,
but Mrs. Neville instantly suppressed the
notion.
"Nuns" she said, 'nonsenSe. When your
own brother in law-at least he will be your
brother in law if the Beers don't make an
end of us all-is here to take care of you;
/ don't talk about going to parcel of nuns.
1t will be as much as they can do to look
after themselves, I'll be bound"
AS for John, he ate his steak and said moth
ing. The arrangement seemed very proper
one to him.